Lupita Nyong’o was fascinated hearing writer-director Michael Sarnoski’s vision for the newest installment in the A Quiet Place film series, as she prepared to play Samira, one of the main survivors in A Quiet Place: Day One. 

“Like [the previous A Quiet Place films]them, the new story is character-driven and there are scary creatures. The difference is the setting and how these people choose to deal with this catastrophe,” she said. 

Samira was formerly a successful published poet, when life threw a wrench in the works and left her bitter and angry, according to Sarnoski. Her character was developed from his initial pitch for A Quiet Place: Day One, which was a woman going through the city in the middle of the apocalypse, to get pizza from a childhood restaurant. “She suddenly finds herself confronting the violent end of everything she knows,” said Sarnoski. “It forces her to face her memories. Lupita does a spectacular job of embodying her.”

Nyong’o recalls the intensity in embodying this role. “It was such a meal to play Samira,” she continues. “When the creatures land, she blacks out. When she awakes, it’s an entirely new world where no one will allow her to speak and she has no idea what happened. How many popular films ask an audience to sit and witness silence? It ends up speaking volumes.”

In the middle of the chaos and horror, Samira and her cat Frodo find companionship in the form of Eric, played by Joseph Quinn. In Quinn’s portrayal, writer John Krasinski saw real potential, along with his chemistry with co-star Nyong’o. “Joe’s wildly talented,” says Krasinski. “In Day One, he walks the razor’s edge of fight or flight on what is the worst day of his character’s life. He and Samira are trying to survive under harrowing circumstances that force them together. That relationship makes them the heartbeat of the movie.”
Quinn is fascinated in the nuance of both Samira and Eric, and how their personalities don’t really fit the traditional archetype of film protagonists. “She[Samira] lacks compassion and wonders what’s worth saving in this world anyway. Her apathy is intriguing to Eric. She doesn’t seem to be as rattled by all of this. But that’s where Michael’s writing is so subtle. He’s so good with the unsaid.”

Quinn also observes the compelling and unusual set of circumstances that brought the two characters together. “He is in love with a New York that doesn’t exist anymore. He’s got no family or friends there, so Samira may be his best chance at getting out of this alive. All she wants is a slice of pizza, which is very funny and very human, but within the narrative there are some beautiful moments about grief, mortality, and loss. All they have is each other really, and if that goes away, what are they left with?”

A Quiet Place: Day One is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide.